Rep. Joe Kennedy III denies knowledge that his father contributed millions to super-PAC in support of Senate race

Yahoo News Video
Updated

Massachusetts congressman and Senate primary candidate Joe Kennedy III tells Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff that he had no knowledge that his father, Joe Kennedy II, had transferred a large sum of money into a super-PAC supporting his primary run against Sen. Ed Markey.

Video Transcript

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Congressman, I think you said that you had no clue your dad was pumping all this money into the Super PAC, which some people have said does not sound credible. Did you really not know this, and have you not discussed that huge sum to the Super PAC with your father?

JOE KENNEDY: So literally, [INAUDIBLE] you just said it. My father has-- I know my dad had about somewhere under $3 million in an old campaign account. I have no idea if or how much of that has been diverted to a Super PAC. The Super PAC disclosures that I am aware of have the funding there from labor unions because of the timing on those disclosures.

So I don't know. But my point on this. Mike-- and let's be very clear about this. I tried for months-- months-- to keep Super PACs out of this race. Months. I [? offered ?] the same-- I asked Senator Markey to sign the same pledge that he put forward when he was running in 2013. And he ran on a people's pledge, the same pledge that Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown signed for their Senate race. He ran on it when he ran, the first race for Senate.

I asked him to sign the same thing so that we didn't have to get into Super PACs, because I don't want Super PACs in this race. He said no, repeatedly, for months. There were other challenges in this race at that time. Myself and one of the other challengers signed that people's pledge. He wouldn't.

And so I have a pretty hard time accepting some sort of criticism from the senator who was given-- was asked to stick by his word in the same pledge that he ran on back in 2013 and 2014, that he somehow walked away from, and is now blaming me because he walked away from the pledge that was good enough for him before. The only reason why Super PACs are in this race is because Senator Markey wouldn't stay consistent.